Logging the Redwoods back in the Good Old Days
Posted by Chuck Ray
I love old documentaries; they give us a great window into the way life used to be, much more realistically than the old Hollywood movies. This video shows the redwood logging and sawmilling process back in 1947. I wonder what these guys were paid, and bet it wasn't enough. Lot's of fresh air, though.
Watch for those pieces of lumber as they come off the saw. Unbelievable.
Oh, and be sure to catch the comment around the 6-minute mark... "...but thousands of years ago, they were to be found throughout Europe and Asia. They grew in countries that are now cold, but were at one time warm...places like Alaska, Iceland, and Greenland."
So, an upside to Global Warming...more redwoods! Hey, sounds nice.
If you're interested in the redwoods and would like to know more about their history and the economics of the redwood industry, take the time to read this excellent 1965 lecture given by Dr. John Zivnuska, who was dean of the School of Forestry at the University of California at the time. He goes into some great detail and stories of the history of the redwoods and discusses the economics involved with setting apart the Redwood National Park, which was then under proposal and was finally created by President Johnson in 1968. Dr. Zivnuska's speech reminds us that forestry really is, or at least once was, a discipline and science of multiple use of the natural resources of the forest. Gifford Pinchot would have been proud of this lecture.
VIEW VIDEO HERE
http://gowood.blogspot.com/2011/11/logging-redwoods-back-in-good-old-days.html?spref=tw